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Taking a break from Adblock Plus development

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Re: Taking a break from Adblock Plus development

#61

Post by m12k »

Fnoord wrote: post #28
mgbmtl wrote: post #21

Many comments are bitterly unfair against ABP. Wladimir/Eyeo changed how we use the web, gave us means to fight back against abusive advertising. They built a business model to make the extension sustainable and find a strategy to legitimate themselves, fight in the courts, etc. Not to mention that ABP never tried to close the market. Alternatives were easy to build thanks to EasyList. Today there are many alternativ…

Come on, as if ABP innovated so much? ABP wasn't the first. I remember using an adblocker native in Firefox back around 2004 (and IIRC I even used on on Mozilla milestones). Back then, there were already /etc/hosts based alternatives (which also have always worked in Windows btw) as well, and a so-called personal firewall could also block ads. These existed for Windows 9x. We're talking end of '90s here. As for the c…

> ABP wasn't the first

Sure, and the iPhone wasn't the first smartphone either, but it did bring the concept to mainstream attention. Same goes for ABP

Re: Taking a break from Adblock Plus development

#63

Post by praneshp »

aphextron wrote: post #62

I'm confused as to what ABP does that is more useful than just adding a blocked list to your /etc/hosts file. Moreso, as to how someone could work on it for 12 years. Exactly what am I missing here?

Easy. A quick google and couple of clicks led me to https://github.com/adblockplus/.

Re: Taking a break from Adblock Plus development

#64

Post by betterunix2 »

romanovcode wrote: post #10

Who is even using this anymore? ABP lost all its cred when it took money from ad business. Just use uBlock Origin.

I used ABP until very recently; I was skeptical of the acceptable ads program but it has not really been abused and anyone could opt out at any time. The point of ad blockers was not to actually block every ad, it was to keep the web sane and stop the trend toward increasingly intrusive advertising. ABP accomplished that goal even with the acceptable ads program.

Re: Taking a break from Adblock Plus development

#66

Post by UncleEntity »

Fnoord wrote: post #56
DarronWyke wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And it can be turned off. It's not a big deal at all. People are making mountains out of molehills.

Ah, so opt-out is suddenly totally OK. A feature being able to be turned off is a plus, but default features not in the interest of the user are a minus. Especially not when users don't have an easy way to opt-out. If users reasonably want to only opt-in such a feature, you as developer should implement it as such.

> Especially not when users don't have an easy way to opt-out.

When I first heard about it took me like 35 seconds to opt-out -- open options and unclick the little clicky box, easy peasy.

Re: Taking a break from Adblock Plus development

#68

Post by mockindignant »

DarronWyke wrote: post #57
paxy wrote: post #5

Adblock Plus sold out a long time ago by taking money from big players to let their ads through. I've been using uBlock Origin for a while and haven't looked back. Plus it's way faster and less buggy.

They never sold out, stop spreading this misinformation.

Do you want to provide some facts to support your claim or are we just supposed to take your word for it? Because, from where I am sitting, it sure does look like they totally sold out.

Re: Taking a break from Adblock Plus development

#69

Post by Fnoord »

UncleEntity wrote: post #66
Fnoord wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah, so opt-out is suddenly totally OK. A feature being able to be turned off is a plus, but default features not in the interest of the user are a minus. Especially not when users don't have an easy way to opt-out. If users reasonably want to only opt-in such a feature, you as developer should implement it as such.

> Especially not when users don't have an easy way to opt-out. When I first heard about it took me like 35 seconds to opt-out -- open options and unclick the little clicky box, easy peasy.

Good for you. If I need to be happy every time I opt-out "when I hear about it" which is often "when I already used the software" and get USDs for every hour I didn't opt-out even though I'd have loved to opt-out right away, then I'd be one hell of a happy Richie Rich.

Having to go through settings in software when you install it, to get the software to work the way the average user wants it to, is annoying. An example could be removing a bitcoin miner from the software, or disabling ads in uTorrent, or disabling telemetry in Windows 10. Firefox as well, but at least they tell you about it right away, and they started doing it later. Not good, but less bad.

Why do software developers get away treating their customers like stupid sheep either wasting their time or getting their data? Ah well, at least in Europe we're getting GDPR.

Re: Taking a break from Adblock Plus development

#70

Post by DarronWyke »

mockindignant wrote: post #68
DarronWyke wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They never sold out, stop spreading this misinformation.

Do you want to provide some facts to support your claim or are we just supposed to take your word for it? Because, from where I am sitting, it sure does look like they totally sold out.

What facts are there that they sold out? They added an optional 'show some ads' feature, only allowing those ads that followed a very strict and well-defined list of parameters. It's very much optional, and not hidden at all to turn it off.
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